Steep Increase In Numbers Of Snowmobiles In Northwoods

Wisconsin's publicly registered snowmobile total is approaching a quarter-million and Northwoods registrations have increased by 163 percent since 2002.

The state last week released data on the number of registrations in Wisconsin. Oneida and Vilas are among the top five counties registering snowmobiles.

The DNR's Cathy Burrow says this region has seen a large growth in snowmobile registrations...

"....over the last 11 years, the increase in snowmobile registrations was a great deal. The lowest was Forest county with a 124 percent increase and the biggest increase was in Vilas county...with an almost 200 percent increase...."

Oneida showed a 161 percent increase, Langlade 149 percent, Lincoln 131 percent, and Forest county 124 percent. Those numbers equals more than 10 thousand registered machines in Vilas county last year, almost 9,000 in Oneida, almost 3799 in Lincoln, almost 2,900 in Langlade and more than 1400 in Forest county.

The DNR said last week the state offers 25,000 miles of groomed trails, almost four-fifths of those miles funded throught the state snowmobile grant program.